Dr. Lesko

It took Ellen a moment to realize that she'd completely missed her companions' disappearance. The door they'd stepped through led only to an ancient janitorial closet, for all that it looked like the entrance to the scientist's makeshift lab. She supposed it made some kind of sense, what with these being maintenance tunnels and all, but where everybody went... ah, well. It must have been Milliways calling them back. Well, nothing to do about it but get a better grip on the nest guardian's severed head and back out of the closet.

The lab door wasn't much further down anyway. "Sir?" she called out as the door slid open. "Are you still here?"

"Oh yes! I've detected some changes within the Queen's hatchery with my equipment," the scientist's nasal voice called back. "What's transpired?"

Ellen glanced down at the gigantic ant head in her arms, then back up at the scientist. "The nest guardians are dead," she said, "and my companions have gone on ahead- they're heading back home."

"Oh, how marvelous!" the man exclaimed. "Then I will proceed to my terminal at once and make the necessary changes in the formula. Thanks very much for everything- you've been a most useful lab assistant!"

Ellen glanced down at the severed head again, but didn't say a word.

"And as far as that goes, an assistant who performs her tasks diligently ought to be rewarded commensurately," the scientist went on. "I've been working for some time now with the genetic sequence of the ants which controls the necessary biochemical processes necessary to survive their own pyrosis, and I've isolated the precise locations involved. I can offer you a mutagenic bio-enhancer that should make you significantly more fireproof should you encounter such dangers in future, if you like. I'll even vouch for its safety. I've tested it on myself, you know."

That was not really Ellen's idea of a ringing recommendation, given how little care he'd taken for experimental protocols and controls. Very carefully she said, "Thank you, sir, but I think I'll skip it, if it's all the same to you."

"Oh, very well." He sighed. "In that case, allow me to offer you my spare lab coat, which is itself more fire-resistant than most clothing I imagine you'll find in the Wastes."

"That's probably better in any case," Ellen said. "Thank you, um..."

"Doctor Weston Lesko, at your service."

---

Ellen rubbed the dust from her eyes as she approached the Pulowski Preservation Shelter and banged on it with one fist. "Bryan?" she called. "Bryan, you can come out now. Dr. Lesko made the ants go away."

The door slid open with a rusty wheeze and Bryan peered out. "Good," he said soberly. "They were awful."

"I know," said Ellen. "I know. Have you eaten today?"

The small boy's face creased in a frown of thought. Eventually, he shook his head.

"Okay, then," said Ellen. "Let's clear ourselves a space in the diner, and you can have one of my ready-meals. Then we're going to head for Megaton."

"Where's Megaton?" Bryan said, obediently tagging along behind her as she turned to enter the hollowed-out hulk of the old diner nearby.

"It's a long, long walk northwest of here," Ellen said.

"Why're we going there?"

"Because there's people who go there who know how to find Rivet City. Isn't that where your cousin lives?"

"Oh yeah!" Bryan brightened up at that. "That'd be great!"